It is customary to provide a split bearing shell of the type referred to with fasteners fixedly interconnecting its two halves, as by screws extending transversely across their end faces. Even though these halves are well centered upon being fitted into the annular interspace between the two relatively rotatable and/or slidable members, the art has hitherto considered it necessary to attach them firmly together so that the shell can be withdrawn as a unit when these members are separated from each other. This is basically desirable in order to prevent the temporary frictional retention of one of these half-shells in the outer member from which that half-shell could subsequently drop so as to be damaged or destroyed.
The rigid interconnection of such half-shells by screws or the like involves rather complex machining operations and, furthermore, has the drawback of causing stresses due to unavoidable deviations from exact coaxially upon being inserted between the associated inner and outer members.